Washtenaw County bans indoor e-cigarette smoking

Last Wednesday, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners came together at the Washtenaw County Administration Building to vote on a proposal that bans indoor smoking with e-cigarettes.

With a vote of 7-2, the proposal was accepted and will be put into legislation in six months. The legislation states that e-cigarette smoking will be prohibited in all locations that previously had smoking restrictions in Washtenaw County.

Washtenaw Community College already includes e-cigarette smoking in its Smoke-Free Campus policy, which prohibits prohibited smoking on all areas of the campus.

Harlowe Shannon, a 32-year-old student, who is attending his second semester at WCC, says that he has been smoking regular cigarettes for 16 years. Although he doesn’t smoke e-cigarettes, he disagrees with the new legislation.

“It seems, to me, to be less of a law about safety, but forcing a personal preference on everyone,” Shannon said.

He understands that when it comes to smoking regular cigarettes, the laws are put into place for health issues, but when it comes to e-cigarettes, it doesn’t make as much sense to Shannon, as it is just water vapor, he said.

There are however, other students on WCC’s campus that do agree with Washtenaw County’s new legislation.

Samantha Greenlee, a 30-year-old student, who has been attending WCC for two years, has her suspicions about e-cigarettes. Samantha described that e-cigarettes do not seem as safe as they’re said to be, agreeing with the new legislation that prohibits smoking indoors.

Even though Greenlee is a non-smoker, she believes that for all types of smoking, “It can wait.”